Wrath of an (ex) Dragon
Posted on January 26, 2010
Filed Under Biz Start-Up | Leave a Comment
Ex-Dragon Doug Richards has published a manifesto calling on entrepreneurs to lead the country out of recession. While I agree with a lot of what he says, I need to (perhaps with more than a little bias) take issue with some of what he says. In particular:
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“We must sweep clean the entire Government funded industry of business suport…” There is, I believe, a fantastic support system in place for start-up businesses (in Scotland certainly). The issue as I see it, is a gap in the system which means businesses who want to take the next step (from £100,000TO to £1,000,000TO) These are the companies who create the employment and wealth that will help to kick-start the recovery. Address the system to support these companies and you will start to see results.
- “The Government must adopt a requirement that a specific percentage of all it’s procurement will be through small and medium businesses” This is beginning to sound like positive discrimination. Much better to ensure that the procurement systems are set up to allow SMEs access – simplifying the administration required for applying will ensure SMEs aren’t priced out of supplying the country’s largest customer, the State.
Having said that, I completely agree with his call for 100MB broadband on every doorstep, his encouragement for a greater emphasis on profitable businesses with a social bottom line and his belief that entrepreneurship is not restricted to the few. It’s perhaps a bit too much generalising with what’s wrong and not enough specific actions to remedy the situation but at least he’s stuck his head above the parapet.
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